The popular keyboard SwiftKey X by Touchtype has been receiving a lot of attention in the world of Android, and with good reason. It is one of the best alternative keyboards available and has recently been graced with some updates making it even better. Today SwiftKey has just announced the new update version 2.1 for their popular keyboard after receiving some changes asked for by their community and from the private BETA. We've been able to look it over and I truly love SwiftKey X, especially on my tablet. More details and pics below.

Samsung has revealed a new 7-inch Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, seemingly targeting a cheaper price point than the recent Galaxy Tab 7.7. Packing a 7-inch LCD IPS display running at 1024 x 600 resolution (rather than the Tab 7.7's Super AMOLED HD 1280 x 800 panel), the Tab 7.0 Plus also offers triband HSPA+, WiFi a/b/g/n (2.4/5GHz) and twin cameras.
On the back there's a 3-megapixel camera with autofocus and an LED flash, while a 2-megapixel camera is on the front for video calling. Inside there's Bluetooth 3.0, WiFi Direct and WiFi Channel bonding support, USB 2.0 and USB Host, and a microSD card slot to augment the 16GB or 32GB of onboard storage. It's 193.65 x 122.37 x 9.96 mm and weighs 345g.
Power is courtesy of an unspecified 1.2GHz dual-core processor, paired with 1GB of RAM, and there are the usual proximity, accelerometer, digital compass, gyro and ambient light sensors. On top of Honeycomb, Samsung's TouchWiz interface delivers its media, social, ereading and other hubs, together with some custom widgets and software like Kies Air.
No word, at this stage, on exactly how much the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus will cost. The company says it will land in Indonesia and Austria first, at the end of October, before seeing a progressive roll-out globally including Southeast and Southwest Asia, US, Europe, CIS, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Japan and China.
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[via SlashGear]

The crazy Canucks at MobileSyrup have gotten their sticky mitts on a Telus-branded version of the Samsung Galaxy S II X, with a super-sized 4.5-inch Super AMOLED Plus display. They've put it through the regular paces and not found the phone wanting, particularly praising its build quality, which surprisingly exceeds the vanilla Galaxy S II.

Gameloft, the Android game publisher that's so good you almost don't mind that none of their games are on the official Android Market, is having a closeout sale on some of its top-tier games this weekend. First-person shooter N.O.V.A, card game UNO, stealthy-stabby adventure Assassin's Creed and the well-loved Asphalt 6 are all just a buck through Sunday, October 2nd. Gameloft announced the sale via their Twitter account, @GameloftAndroid.

Ah, cross-promotion. Surely one of the finest institutions of the modern marketing machine. In Verizon's latest bit of salesmanship, they've ditched the football fans and tae-bo urbanites for an American icon all the way from the UK: Simon Cowell. The cellular carrier employed the laser-tongued musical personality in a commercial you'll likely be seeing a lot of in the next few weeks, promoting both the DROID Bionic and Fox's new talent show X-Factor.

The venerable Nexus One is coming up on its second birthday (which is practically octogenarian by smartphone standards), but like the OG Droid, it's still got its loyal users. Count ROM cook extraordinaire Peter Alfonso among them. He's begun supporting the Nexus One with new nightly builds of his self-branded series of Gingerbread ROMs.

The HTC Holiday keeps popping up its head for everyone to see and today it has done it again. It was first spotted way back in August after someone sold it on eBay, and since has seen countless leaks. Today was no different and it was spotted in Australia soaking up the sun and running some impressive 4G speeds.

Amazon's Jeff Bezeos is understandably proud of the Android-based Kindle Fire, but perhaps not for the reasons you might think. He's quick to highlight how the branded device is a world away from other Android tablets on the market, and more like Apple's iPad. The end-to-end business model, where consumers depend on one company for hardware, software and content, is just what the Kindle Fire needs to put it above the crowded tablet space, at least according to Amazon.

Microsoft has been collecting licensing agreements from Android manufacturers like Samsung and HTC for months now. According to ZDNet, this adds up to some serious dinero, to the tune of $444 million every year. With Android continuing to dominate in markets around the world, that number can only grow.

Bummed that you didn't pick up a HP Touchpad when it went on an insane $99 fire sale? Disappointing that you won't get to play around with CyanogenMod's upcoming Gingerbread port? Well buck up, deal seeker. You can find a dirt-cheap Touchpad at your local Aaron's appliance rental center for just 89 greenbacks and one horrible, horrible catch.